Methods and systems for dynamically provisioning resources for on-demand courses

ABSTRACT

A method for providing access to dynamically provisioned resources and on-demand courses includes receiving, by an instantiation engine executing on a first computing device, from a second computing device associated with a user, an indication that the user has purchased access to the course at a scheduled time. A type of computing resource is identified for use during the course at the scheduled time. A service provider computing device is selected from a plurality of service provider computing devices, based upon an ability to provide access to the identified type of computing resource at the scheduled time. Before the scheduled time, the instantiation engine instructs the selected service provider computing device to provision a computing resource of the identified type. The method includes transmitting, to the second computing device, an instruction to establish a connection to the provisioned computing resource at the scheduled time.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 61/672,811, filed on Jul. 18, 2012, entitled“Methods and Systems for Dynamically Provisioning Resources forOn-Demand Courses,” which is hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND

The disclosure relates to provisioning computing resources. Moreparticularly, the methods and systems described herein relate tofunctionality for dynamically provisioning resources for on-demandcourses.

Every year small, medium, and large enterprise systems and applicationsoftware companies release new software. A new software releasetypically requires customer explanation and training. Training for majorsoftware releases conventionally takes the form of classroom instructionincluding “hands-on” training labs.

“Hands-on” training lab instruction is often made available inclassrooms or at events such as trade shows, sales meetings, partnersales meetings, user group meetings, and technical conferences. Traininglabs are usually created by vendors or by their training affiliates.Annually, hundreds of thousands of “hands-on” training labs aredelivered.

For the technical community of vendors, partners, and users, hands-ontraining lab instruction is often an extremely valuable and effectiveform of instruction. However, staging hands-on training labs is often anexpensive proposition including significant acquisition costs forsystems, software, and maintenance. Logistics for students and for theprovisioning and configuration of systems are often both complex andtime consuming. With a lack of common tools, content creation and thedistribution of that content can also be difficult to coordinate. Oftentechnical employees or volunteers provide the content and infrastructurefor training labs, but once the training lab has been given the physicalinfrastructure is removed and electronic versions of the training labsare typically destroyed.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, a method for dynamically provisioning resources for anon-demand course at a scheduled time includes receiving, by aninstantiation engine executing on a first computing device, from asecond computing device associated with a user, an indication that theuser has purchased access to a course at a scheduled time. The methodincludes identifying, by the instantiation engine, a type of computingresource for use during the course at the scheduled time. The methodincludes selecting, by the instantiation engine, a service providercomputing device from a plurality of service provider computing devices,based upon an ability of the selected service provider computing deviceto provide, to the second computing device, access to the identifiedtype of computing resource at the scheduled time. The method includes,before the scheduled time, instructing, by the instantiation engine, theselected service provider computing device to provision a computingresource of the identified type. The method includes transmitting, bythe instantiation engine, to the second computing device, an instructionto establish a connection to the provisioned computing resource at thescheduled time.

In another aspect, a method for dynamically provisioning resources foran on-demand course to multiple users includes receiving, by aninstantiation engine executing on a first computing device, from asecond computing device associated with a user, a request to access acourse. The method includes identifying, by the instantiation engine, atype of computing resource for use during the course. The methodincludes selecting, by the instantiation engine, a service providercomputing device from a plurality of service provider computing devices,based upon an ability of the selected service provider computing deviceto provide, to the second computing device, access to the identifiedtype of computing resource. The method includes instructing, by theinstantiation engine, the selected service provider computing device toprovision a computing resource of the identified type. The methodincludes transmitting, by the instantiation engine, to the secondcomputing device, an instruction to establish a connection to theprovisioned computing resource. The method includes receiving, by theinstantiation engine, from a third computing device associated with asecond user, a second request to access the course. The method includesselecting, by the instantiation engine, a second service providercomputing device from the plurality of service provider computingdevices, based upon an ability of the second service provider computingdevice to provide, to the third computing device, access to theidentified type of computing resource for use during the course. Themethod includes instructing, by the instantiation engine, the secondservice provider computing device to provision a second computingresource of the identified type. The method includes transmitting, bythe instantiation engine, to the third computing device, an instructionto establish a connection to the provisioned second computing resource.

In still another aspect, a method for providing access to a dynamicallyprovisioned resource and an on-demand course includes receiving, by acreation engine executing on a first computing device, from a secondcomputing device associated with a user, a request to create a course.The method includes receiving, by the creation engine, from the secondcomputing device, an identification of a type of computing resource foruse during the course. The method includes selecting, by the creationengine, a service provider computing device from a plurality of serviceprovider computing devices based upon an ability of the selected serviceprovider computing device to provide, to the second computing device,access to the identified type of computing resource. The method includesinstructing, by the creation engine, the service provider computingdevice to provision a computing resource of the identified type. Themethod includes directing, by the creation engine, the second computingdevice to connect to the provisioned computing resource. The methodincludes receiving, by the creation engine, from the second computingdevice, an indication that the user configured the provisioned computingresource for use during the course. The method includes directing, bythe creation engine, the service provider computing device to save astate of the provisioned computing resource and metadata associated withthe course, responsive to the received indication. The method includesproviding access to the saved state of the provisioned computingresource and the metadata associated with the course. In one embodiment,the method includes providing a subscription for accessing the savedstate and the metadata. In another embodiment, the method includesoffering for sale a copy of the saved state and the metadata.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, aspects, features, and advantages ofthe disclosure will become more apparent and better understood byreferring to the following description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A-1C are block diagrams depicting embodiments of computers usefulin connection with the methods and systems described herein;

FIG. 1D is a block diagram depicting one embodiment of a system in whicha plurality of networks provide data hosting and delivery services;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting an embodiment of a system forcreating and providing access to a course incorporating dynamicallyprovisioned resources;

FIG. 3A is a flow diagram depicting an embodiment of a method forcreating a course incorporating dynamically provisioned resources;

FIG. 3B is a flow diagram depicting an embodiment of a method forproviding access to a course incorporating dynamically provisionedresources and on-demand courses;

FIG. 4A is a flow diagram depicting an embodiment of a method fordynamically provisioning resources for on-demand courses;

FIG. 4B is a flow diagram depicting an embodiment of a method fordynamically provisioning resources for an on-demand course to multipleusers; and

FIG. 4C is a flow diagram depicting an embodiment of a method fordynamically provisioning resources for an on-demand course at ascheduled time.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In some embodiments, the methods and systems described herein providefunctionality for dynamically provisioning resources for on-demandcourses. Before describing these methods and systems in detail, however,a description is provided of a network in which such methods and systemsmay be implemented.

Referring now to FIG. 1A, an embodiment of a network environment isdepicted. In brief overview, the network environment comprises one ormore clients 102 a-102 n (also generally referred to as local machine(s)102, client(s) 102, client node(s) 102, client machine(s) 102, clientcomputer(s) 102, client device(s) 102, computing device(s) 102,endpoint(s) 102, or endpoint node(s) 102) in communication with one ormore remote machines 106 a-106 n (also generally referred to asserver(s) 106 or computing device(s) 106) via one or more networks 104.

Although FIG. 1A shows a network 104 between the clients 102 and theremote machines 106, the clients 102 and the remote machines 106 may beon the same network 104. The network 104 can be a local area network(LAN), such as a company Intranet, a metropolitan area network (MAN), ora wide area network (WAN), such as the Internet or the World Wide Web.In some embodiments, there are multiple networks 104 between the clients102 and the remote machines 106. In one of these embodiments, a network104′ (not shown) may be a private network and a network 104 may be apublic network. In another of these embodiments, a network 104 may be aprivate network and a network 104′ a public network. In still anotherembodiment, networks 104 and 104′ may both be private networks.

The network 104 may be any type and/or form of network and may includeany of the following: a point to point network, a broadcast network, awide area network, a local area network, a telecommunications network, adata communication network, a computer network, an ATM (AsynchronousTransfer Mode) network, a SONET (Synchronous Optical Network) network,an SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network, a wireless network, anda wireline network. In some embodiments, the network 104 may comprise awireless link, such as an infrared channel or satellite band. Thetopology of the network 104 may be a bus, star, or ring networktopology. The network 104 may be of any such network topology as knownto those ordinarily skilled in the art capable of supporting theoperations described herein. The network may comprise mobile telephonenetworks utilizing any protocol or protocols used to communicate amongmobile devices, including AMPS, TDMA, CDMA, GSM, GPRS, or UMTS. In someembodiments, different types of data may be transmitted via differentprotocols. In other embodiments, the same types of data may betransmitted via different protocols.

A client 102 and a remote machine 106 (referred to generally ascomputing devices 100) can be any workstation, desktop computer, laptopor notebook computer, server, portable computer, mobile telephone orother portable telecommunication device, media playing device, a gamingsystem, mobile computing device, or any other type and/or form ofcomputing, telecommunications or media device that is capable ofcommunicating on any type and form of network and that has sufficientprocessor power and memory capacity to perform the operations describedherein. A client 102 may execute, operate or otherwise provide anapplication, which can be any type and/or form of software, program, orexecutable instructions, including, without limitation, any type and/orform of web browser, web-based client, client-server application, anActiveX control, or a Java applet, or any other type and/or form ofexecutable instructions capable of executing on client 102.

In one embodiment, a computing device 106 provides functionality of aweb server. In some embodiments, a web server 106 comprises anopen-source web server, such as the APACHE servers maintained by theApache Software Foundation of Delaware. In other embodiments, the webserver executes proprietary software, such as the Internet InformationServices products provided by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.,the Oracle iPlanet web server products provided by Oracle Corporation ofRedwood Shores, Calif., or the BEA WEBLOGIC products provided by BEASystems of Santa Clara, Calif. In further embodiments, a computingdevice 106 executes self-replication software. In one of theseembodiments, execution of the self-replication software allows acomputing device 106 a to direct a second computing device 106 b toprovide a copy of data stored by the computing device 106. For example,the computing device 106 a may provide access to a web site and, uponexecution of the self-replication software, direct the second computingdevice 106 b to provide access to a copy of the web site.

In some embodiments, the system may include multiple, logically-groupedremote machines 106. In one of these embodiments, the logical group ofremote machines may be referred to as a server farm 38. In another ofthese embodiments, the server farm 38 may be administered as a singleentity.

FIGS. 1B and 1C depict block diagrams of a computing device 100 usefulfor practicing an embodiment of the client 102 or a remote machine 106.As shown in FIGS. 1B and 1C, each computing device 100 includes acentral processing unit 121, and a main memory unit 122. As shown inFIG. 1B, a computing device 100 may include a storage device 128, aninstallation device 116, a network interface 118, an I/O controller 123,display devices 124 a-n, a keyboard 126, a pointing device 127, such asa mouse, and one or more other I/O devices 130 a-n. The storage device128 may include, without limitation, an operating system and software.As shown in FIG. 1C, each computing device 100 may also includeadditional optional elements, such as a memory port 103, a bridge 170,one or more input/output devices 130 a-130 n (generally referred tousing reference numeral 130), and a cache memory 140 in communicationwith the central processing unit 121.

The central processing unit 121 is any logic circuitry that responds toand processes instructions fetched from the main memory unit 122. Inmany embodiments, the central processing unit 121 is provided by amicroprocessor unit, such as: those manufactured by Intel Corporation ofMountain View, Calif.; those manufactured by Motorola Corporation ofSchaumburg, Ill.; those manufactured by Transmeta Corporation of SantaClara, Calif.; those manufactured by International Business Machines ofWhite Plains, N.Y.; or those manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices ofSunnyvale, Calif. The computing device 100 may be based on any of theseprocessors, or any other processor capable of operating as describedherein.

Main memory unit 122 may be one or more memory chips capable of storingdata and allowing any storage location to be directly accessed by themicroprocessor 121. The main memory 122 may be based on any availablememory chips capable of operating as described herein. In the embodimentshown in FIG. 1B, the processor 121 communicates with main memory 122via a system bus 150. FIG. 1C depicts an embodiment of a computingdevice 100 in which the processor communicates directly with main memory122 via a memory port 103. FIG. 1C also depicts an embodiment in whichthe main processor 121 communicates directly with cache memory 140 via asecondary bus, sometimes referred to as a backside bus. In otherembodiments, the main processor 121 communicates with cache memory 140using the system bus 150.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1B, the processor 121 communicates withvarious I/O devices 130 via a local system bus 150. Various buses may beused to connect the central processing unit 121 to any of the I/Odevices 130, including a VESA VL bus, an ISA bus, an EISA bus, aMicroChannel Architecture (MCA) bus, a PCI bus, a PCI-X bus, aPCI-Express bus, or a NuBus. For embodiments in which the I/O device isa video display 124, the processor 121 may use an Advanced Graphics Port(AGP) to communicate with the display 124. FIG. 1C depicts an embodimentof a computer 100 in which the main processor 121 also communicatesdirectly with an I/O device 130 b via, for example, HYPERTRANSPORT,RAPIDIO, or INFINIBAND communications technology.

A wide variety of I/O devices 130 a-130 n may be present in thecomputing device 100. Input devices include keyboards, mice, trackpads,trackballs, microphones, scanners, cameras, and drawing tablets. Outputdevices include video displays, speakers, inkjet printers, laserprinters, and dye-sublimation printers. The I/O devices may becontrolled by an I/O controller 123 as shown in FIG. 1B. Furthermore, anI/O device may also provide storage and/or an installation medium 116for the computing device 100. In some embodiments, the computing device100 may provide USB connections (not shown) to receive handheld USBstorage devices such as the USB Flash Drive line of devices manufacturedby Twintech Industry, Inc. of Los Alamitos, Calif.

Referring still to FIG. 1B, the computing device 100 may support anysuitable installation device 116, such as a floppy disk drive forreceiving floppy disks such as 3.5-inch, 5.25-inch disks or ZIP disks; aCD-ROM drive; a CD-R/RW drive; a DVD-ROM drive; tape drives of variousformats; a USB device; a hard-drive or any other device suitable forinstalling software and programs. The computing device 100 may furthercomprise a storage device, such as one or more hard disk drives orredundant arrays of independent disks, for storing an operating systemand other software.

Furthermore, the computing device 100 may include a network interface118 to interface to the network 104 through a variety of connectionsincluding, but not limited to, standard telephone lines, LAN or WANlinks (e.g., 802.11, T1, T3, 56 kb, X.25, SNA, DECNET), broadbandconnections (e.g., ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM, Gigabit Ethernet,Ethernet-over-SONET), wireless connections, or some combination of anyor all of the above. Connections can be established using a variety ofcommunication protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, IPX, SPX, NetBIOS, Ethernet,ARCNET, SONET, SDH, Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), RS232, IEEE802.11, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n, CDMA,GSM, WiMax, and direct asynchronous connections). In one embodiment, thecomputing device 100 communicates with other computing devices 100′ viaany type and/or form of gateway or tunneling protocol such as SecureSocket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS). The networkinterface 118 may comprise a built-in network adapter, network interfacecard, PCMCIA network card, card bus network adapter, wireless networkadapter, USB network adapter, modem, or any other device suitable forinterfacing the computing device 100 to any type of network capable ofcommunication and performing the operations described herein.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 may comprise or beconnected to multiple display devices 124 a-124 n, which each may be ofthe same or different type and/or form. As such, any of the I/O devices130 a-130 n and/or the I/O controller 123 may comprise any type and/orform of suitable hardware, software, or combination of hardware andsoftware to support, enable or provide for the connection and use ofmultiple display devices 124 a-124 n by the computing device 100. Oneordinarily skilled in the art will recognize and appreciate the variousways and embodiments that a computing device 100 may be configured tohave multiple display devices 124 a-124 n.

In further embodiments, an I/O device 130 may be a bridge between thesystem bus 150 and an external communication bus, such as a USB bus, anApple Desktop Bus, an RS-232 serial connection, a SCSI bus, a FireWirebus, a FireWire 800 bus, an Ethernet bus, an AppleTalk bus, a GigabitEthernet bus, an Asynchronous Transfer Mode bus, a HIPPI bus, a SuperHIPPI bus, a SerialPlus bus, a SCI/LAMP bus, a FibreChannel bus, or aSerial Attached small computer system interface bus.

A computing device 100 of the sort depicted in FIGS. 1B and 1C typicallyoperates under the control of operating systems, which controlscheduling of tasks and access to system resources. The computing device100 can be running any operating system such as any of the versions ofthe MICROSOFT WINDOWS operating systems, the different releases of theUnix and Linux operating systems, any version of the MAC OS forMacintosh computers, any embedded operating system, any real-timeoperating system, any open source operating system, any proprietaryoperating system, any operating systems for mobile computing devices, orany other operating system capable of running on the computing deviceand performing the operations described herein. Typical operatingsystems include, but are not limited to: WINDOWS 3.x, WINDOWS 95,WINDOWS 98, WINDOWS 2000, WINDOWS NT 3.51, WINDOWS NT 4.0, WINDOWS CE,WINDOWS XP, WINDOWS 7, and WINDOWS VISTA, all of which are manufacturedby Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.; MAC OS manufactured by AppleInc. of Cupertino, Calif.; OS/2 manufactured by International BusinessMachines of Armonk, N.Y.; and Linux, a freely-available operating systemdistributed by Caldera Corp. of Salt Lake City, Utah, or any type and/orform of a Unix operating system, among others.

The computing device 100 can be any workstation, desktop computer,laptop or notebook computer, server, portable computer, mobile telephoneor other portable telecommunication device, media playing device, agaming system, mobile computing device, or any other type and/or form ofcomputing, telecommunications or media device that is capable ofcommunication and that has sufficient processor power and memorycapacity to perform the operations described herein. In someembodiments, the computing device 100 may have different processors,operating systems, and input devices consistent with the device. Inother embodiments the computing device 100 is a mobile device, such as aJAVA-enabled cellular telephone or personal digital assistant (PDA). Thecomputing device 100 may be a mobile device such as those manufactured,by way of example and without limitation, by Motorola Corp. ofSchaumburg, Ill.; Kyocera of Kyoto, Japan; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.of Seoul, Korea; Nokia of Finland; Hewlett-Packard Development Company,L.P. and/or Palm, Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif.; Sony Ericsson MobileCommunications AB of Lund, Sweden; or Research In Motion Limited ofWaterloo, Ontario, Canada. In yet other embodiments, the computingdevice 100 is a smart phone, Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone, or otherportable mobile device supporting Microsoft Windows Mobile Software.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 is a digital audio player.In one of these embodiments, the computing device 100 is a digital audioplayer such as the Apple IPOD, IPOD Touch, IPOD NANO, and IPOD SHUFFLElines of devices manufactured by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. Inanother of these embodiments, the digital audio player may function asboth a portable media player and as a mass storage device. In otherembodiments, the computing device 100 is a digital audio player such asthose manufactured by, for example, and without limitation, SamsungElectronics America of Ridgefield Park, N.J., Motorola Inc. ofSchaumburg, Ill., or Creative Technologies Ltd. of Singapore. In yetother embodiments, the computing device 100 is a portable media playeror digital audio player supporting file formats including, but notlimited to, MP3, WAV, M4A/AAC, WMA Protected AAC, AEFF, Audibleaudiobook, Apple Lossless audio file formats, and .mov, .m4v, and .mp4MPEG-4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC) video file formats.

In some embodiments, the computing device 100 comprises a combination ofdevices, such as a mobile phone combined with a digital audio player orportable media player. In one of these embodiments, the computing device100 is a device in the Motorola line of combination digital audioplayers and mobile phones. In another of these embodiments, thecomputing device 100 is a device in the iPhone smartphone line ofdevices manufactured by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif. In still anotherof these embodiments, the computing device 100 is a device executing theAndroid open source mobile phone platform distributed by the OpenHandset Alliance; for example, the device 100 may be a device such asthose provided by Samsung Electronics of Seoul, Korea, or HTCHeadquarters of Taiwan, R.O.C. In other embodiments, the computingdevice 100 is a tablet device such as, for example and withoutlimitation, the iPad line of devices manufactured by Apple Inc.; thePlayBook manufactured by Research In Motion; the Cruz line of devicesmanufactured by Velocity Micro, Inc. of Richmond, Va.; the Folio andThrive line of devices manufactured by Toshiba America InformationSystems, Inc. of Irvine, Calif.: the Galaxy line of devices manufacturedby Samsung; the HP Slate line of devices manufactured byHewlett-Packard; and the Streak line of devices manufactured by Dell,Inc. of Round Rock, Tex.

Referring now to FIG. 1D, a block diagram depicts one embodiment of asystem in which a plurality of networks provide hosting and deliveryservices. In brief overview, the system includes a cloud services andhosting infrastructure 180, a service provider data center 182, and aninformation technology (IT) network 184.

In one embodiment, the data center 182 includes computing devices suchas, without limitation, servers (including, for example, applicationservers, file servers, databases, and backup servers), routers,switches, and telecommunications equipment. In another embodiment, thecloud services and hosting infrastructure 180 provides access to,without limitation, storage systems, databases, application servers,desktop servers, directory services, web servers, as well as servicesfor accessing remotely located hardware and software platforms. In stillother embodiments, the cloud services and hosting infrastructure 180includes a data center 182. In other embodiments, however, the cloudservices and hosting infrastructure 180 relies on services provided by athird-party data center 182. In some embodiments, the IT network 104 cmay provide local services, such as mail services and web services. Inother embodiments, the IT network 104 c may provide local versions ofremotely located services, such as locally-cached versions ofremotely-located print servers, databases, application servers, desktopservers, directory services, and web servers. In further embodiments,additional servers may reside in the cloud services and hostinginfrastructure 180, the data center 182, or other networks altogether,such as those provided by third-party service providers including,without limitation, infrastructure service providers, applicationservice providers, platform service providers, tools service providers,and desktop service providers.

In one embodiment, a user of a client 102 accesses services provided bya remotely located server 106 a. For instance, an administrator of anenterprise IT network 184 may determine that a user of the client 102 awill access an application executing on a virtual machine executing on aremote server 106 a. As another example, an individual user of a client102 b may use a resource provided to consumers by the remotely locatedserver 106 (such as email, fax, voice or other communications service,data backup services, or other service).

As depicted in FIG. 1D, the data center 182 and the cloud services andhosting infrastructure 180 are remotely located from an individual ororganization supported by the data center 182 and the cloud services andhosting infrastructure 180; for example, the data center 182 may resideon a first network 104 a and the cloud services and hostinginfrastructure 180 may reside on a second network 104 b, while the ITnetwork 184 is a separate, third network 104 c. In other embodiments,the data center 182 and the cloud services and hosting infrastructure180 reside on a first network 104 a and the IT network 184 is aseparate, second network 104 c. In still other embodiments, the cloudservices and hosting infrastructure 180 resides on a first network 104 awhile the data center 182 and the IT network 184 form a second network104 c. Although FIG. 1D depicts only one sever 106 a, one server 106 b,one server 106 c, two clients 102, and three networks 104, it should beunderstood that the system may provide multiple ones of any or each ofthose components. The servers 106, clients 102, and networks 104 may beprovided as described above in connection with FIGS. 1A-1C.

Therefore, in some embodiments, an IT infrastructure may extend from afirst network—such as a network owned and managed by an individual or anenterprise—into a second network, which may be owned or managed by aseparate entity than the entity owning or managing the first network.Resources provided by the second network may be said to be “in a cloud.”Cloud-resident elements may include, without limitation, storagedevices, servers, databases, computing environments (including virtualmachines, servers, and desktops), and applications. For example, the ITnetwork 184 may use a remotely located data center 182 to store servers(including, for example, application servers, file servers, databases,and backup servers), routers, switches, and telecommunicationsequipment. The data center 182 may be owned and managed by the ITnetwork 184 or a third-party service provider (including for example, acloud services and hosting infrastructure provider) may provide accessto a separate data center 182.

In some embodiments, one or more networks providing computinginfrastructure on behalf of customers is referred to a cloud. In one ofthese embodiments, a system in which users of a first network access atleast a second network including a pool of abstracted, scalable, andmanaged computing resources capable of hosting resources may be referredto as a cloud computing environment. In another of these embodiments,resources may include, without limitation, virtualization technology,data center resources, applications, and management tools. In someembodiments, Internet-based applications (which may be provided via a“software-as-a-service” model) may be referred to as cloud-basedresources. In other embodiments, networks that provide users withcomputing resources, such as remote servers, virtual machines, or bladeson blade servers, may be referred to as compute clouds or“infrastructure-as-a-service” providers. In still other embodiments,networks that provide storage resources, such as storage area networks,may be referred to as storage clouds. In further embodiments, a resourcemay be cached in a local network and stored in a cloud.

In some embodiments, some or all of a plurality of remote machines 106may be leased or rented from third-party companies such as, by way ofexample and without limitation, Amazon Web Services LLC of Seattle,Wash.; Rackspace US, Inc. of San Antonio, Tex.; Microsoft Corporation ofRedmond, Wash.; and Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. In otherembodiments, all the hosts 106 are owned and managed by third-partycompanies including, without limitation, Amazon Web Services LLC,Rackspace US, Inc., Microsoft, and Google.

In some embodiments, the methods and systems described herein providefunctionality for dynamically provisioning resources for on-demandcourses. In one of these embodiments, the methods and systems describedherein provide functionality allowing software and systems companies toreduce training costs and increase revenue while expanding their reachand influence with the technical communities they serve. In another ofthese embodiments, the methods and systems described herein providesoftware and services that allow information technology (IT)professionals to create, run, take, and share “hands-on” training labsthat provide valuable systems and application software knowledge byusing on-line, low cost, on-demand, user configurable, and highlyscalable data center resources; such end-to-end resources may include ahigh performing, secure environment isolated from corporate networks. Inother embodiments, the methods and systems described herein reduce theneed for software and services companies to acquire hardware andsoftware resources and make those resources available in physicalclassrooms in order to provide hands-on enterprise software training,without requiring these companies to extend their own management andconfiguration capabilities to allow for remote control of data centerservice provider infrastructure. In one of these embodiments, by way ofexample, such companies need not create an end-to-end IT-as-a-servicesolution in order to provide on-demand, user-configurable, hands-ontechnical training.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a block diagram depicts one embodiment of asystem for creating and providing access to a course incorporatingdynamically provisioned resources, including functionality fordynamically provisioning the resources for an on-demand course. In briefoverview, the system includes a creation engine 202, an instantiationengine 204, a state management engine 205, a service provider selectioncomponent 206, a computing resource identification component 208, aclient 102 a-n, a client application 210 a-n, a machine 106 a, aplurality of service providers 212 a-n, and a plurality of computingresources 220 a-n. In some embodiments, the creation engine 202 andinstantiation engine 204 provide functionality for rapidly creating,deploying and managing courses (such as hands-on training labs)on-demand from remote locations.

In one embodiment, the machine 106 a executes the creation engine 202and the instantiation engine 204. In another embodiment, the creationengine 202 provides an interface to the client 102 a with which a userof the client 102 a may create applications. In still anotherembodiment, the instantiation engine 204 provides a second interfacewith which clients (e.g., the client 102 a or a second client 102 b) mayaccess previously created applications. In yet another embodiment, thecreation engine 202 communicates with the instantiation engine 204 toprovision hardware and software resources for use in creating anapplication. Applications may include, without limitation, courses,portions of courses, and course-related software (including softwarehosted by a third party and made available over the network 104) andhardware, each of which may be generally referred to herein as“courses.”

In some embodiments, the machine 106 a executes the service providerselection component 206. In one of these embodiments, the creationengine 202 interacts with the service provider selection component 206to identify one of a plurality of service provider computing devices 212a-n with which to provide access to resources for use during a course.In another of these embodiments, the creation engine 202 includes thefunctionality of the service provider selection component 206. Inanother of these embodiments, the creation engine 202 communicates withthe instantiation engine 204 to identify service provider computingdevices 212 and provision computing resources 220. In still another ofthese embodiments, the instantiation engine 204 interacts with theservice provider selection component 206 to identify one of a pluralityof service provider computing devices 212 a-n with which to provideaccess to resources for use during a course. In yet another of theseembodiments, the instantiation engine 204 includes the functionality ofthe service provider selection component 206.

In some embodiments, the machine 106 a executes the computing resourceidentification component 208. In one of these embodiments, the creationengine 202 interacts with the computing resource identificationcomponent 208 to identify a type of computing resource for use during acourse. In another of these embodiments, the creation engine 202includes the functionality of the computing resource identificationcomponent 208. In another of these embodiments, the creation engine 202communicates with the instantiation engine 204 to identify types ofcomputing resources for use during a course. In still another of theseembodiments, the instantiation engine 204 interacts with the computingresource identification component 208 to identify a type of computingresource for use during a course. In yet another of these embodiments,the instantiation engine 204 includes the functionality of the computingresource identification component 208.

In some embodiments, the instantiation engine 204 includes an executionengine (not shown) with which it executes a course. In otherembodiments, the computing resources 220 include one or more executionengines with which to execute a course. For example, and withoutlimitation, to provide a client app 210 with access to a course, aresource executes; the resource may be software or hardware, theresource may be virtualized, the resource may be software executed on asecond machine 106 b and accessed across the network 104 via a computingresource 220 (e.g., third party software provided as“software-as-a-service”), and the resource may execute on either theinstantiation engine 204, the computing resource 220, or both with afirst sub-component of the resource executing on the instantiationengine 204 and a second sub-component of the resource executing on thecomputing resource 220.

In one embodiment, the system 200 includes a recommendation engine (notshown), which generates a recommendation that a user take a course. Forexample, the recommendation engine may review data associated with theuser to determine what courses the user has previously taken andgenerate a recommendation of additional courses that the user shouldtake. Continuing with this example, the recommendation engine mayanalyze data associated with other users who took the same courses asthe user to determine what other courses they took and recommends thosecourses to the user. As another example, the recommendation engine mayanalyze data associated with the user including, by way of example andwithout limitation, type of job, place of employment, career-relatedinterests, other career-related data, course review data (indicating apreference for a type of course or professor), and other profile dataand compare that data with other users who have similar profiles toidentify courses to recommend to the user. Additionally, therecommendation engine may analyze metadata associated with a user inmaking the recommendation; for example, the recommendation engine mayanalyze metadata identifying other courses taken by the user, an amountof time spent by the user taking courses generally, an amount of timespent by the user on a specific course, and other usage metrics.

In some embodiments, the system 200 includes a playback engine (notshown), which allows a user to view a recorded version of a course. Inone of these embodiments, a first user takes a course, records the audioor video course data, saves the recorded data to the system 200 (e.g.,to the state management engine 205), and shares the recorded course data(e.g., by posting a link to the recorded data on a blog, micro-blog,video-sharing, or other web site). In another of these embodiments, asecond user connects to a playback engine executing on the machine 106and the playback engine plays, directly or indirectly, the recordedvideo for the user.

In one embodiment, providers of the machine 106 a also provide theplurality of service provider computing devices 212 a-n. For example, anadministrator of a system for dynamically provisioning resources foron-demand courses may also administer computing devices with which toprovide access to remote resources. However, in other embodiments, athird party owns, maintains or provides access to the service providercomputing devices 212 a-n, and the computing resources 220 a and 220 b.

In one embodiment, the state management engine 205 includesfunctionality for communicating with the service provider computingdevices 212 a-n. In one embodiment, the state management engine 205includes functionality for communicating with the computing resources220 a-n. In another embodiment, the state management engine 205maintains, directly or indirectly, a state of a course for one or moreusers; for example, the state management engine 205 may instruct acomputing resource 220 a to save a state of a course generated by aclient app 210 a in communication with the creation engine 202 while inanother example, the state management engine 205 receives, from at leastone of the service provider computing device 212 and the computingresource 220, a state snapshot of a course at a point where a studenthas paused his interaction with the computing resource 220. Statesnapshots and virtual machine images and other data structures forpreserving state data may be provided in any type, format, or structure,as will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art.

In some embodiments, the state management engine 205 manages the stateof data associated with a course. In one of these embodiments, the statemanagement engine 205 manages social media data associated with acourse. For example, the state management engine 205 may determine thata social networking site includes data describing the course (e.g., astudent who took the course may have put a review of the course in amicro-blogging site such as the site provided by Twitter, Inc. of SanFrancisco, Calif., or a creator of the course may have put a video filedisplaying an execution of the course on a video sharing site, such asthe site provided by YouTube LLC of San Bruno, Calif.). In this example,the state management engine 205 may include a link to the associateddata in the metadata stored with the course or otherwise make theassociated data available.

Computing resources 220 a-n include, without limitation, physical orvirtualized computing components that users of remote machines mayaccess over a network 104. For example, and without limitation, thecomputing resources 220 a-n may include computers 100 as described abovein connection with FIGS. 1A-1D. By way of further example, the computingresources 220 a-n may include virtual computers, virtual computercomponents (such as hard drives), physical computers (including, by wayof example, blades on blade servers or other types of shared ordedicated servers), memory, network devices, databases, or software. Inother embodiments, the computing resources 220 a-n act as intermediariesand provide access to other remote machines. For example, a computingresource 220 a (maintained either by a provider of the machine 106 or bya third party) may provide access to a second machine 106 b thatexecutes software made available over the network 104; by way ofexample, a software-as-a-service provider may execute software on asecond machine 106 b that a user can access via the computing resource220 a while taking a course. Although referred to herein as engines andcomponents, the creation engine 202, the instantiation engine 204, thestate machine engine 205, the service provider selection component 206,and the computing resource identification component 208 may each beprovided as either hardware or software and may execute on one or moremachines 100 as described above in FIGS. 1A-1D.

Referring now to FIG. 3A, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of amethod 300 for dynamically provisioning resources for on-demand courses.In brief overview, the method 300 includes receiving, by a creationengine executing on a first computing device, from a second computingdevice associated with a user, a request to create a course (302). Themethod 300 includes receiving, by the creation engine, from the secondcomputing device, an identification of a type of computing resource foruse during the course (304). The method 300 includes selecting, by thecreation engine, a service provider computing device from a plurality ofservice provider computing devices, based upon an ability of theselected service provider computing device to provide, to the secondcomputing device, access to the identified type of computing resource(306). The method 300 includes instructing, by the creation engine, theservice provider computing device to provision a computing resource ofthe identified type (308). The method 300 includes directing, by thecreation engine, the second computing device to connect to theprovisioned computing resource (310). The method 300 includes receiving,by the creation engine, from the second computing device, an indicationthat the user configured the provisioned computing resource for useduring the course (312). The method 300 includes directing, by thecreation engine, a state management engine to save a state of theprovisioned computing resource, responsive to the received indication(314).

Referring now to FIG. 3 in greater detail, and in connection with FIG.2, a creation engine executing on a first computing device receives,from a second computing device associated with a user, a request tocreate a course (302). In one embodiment, the creation engine 202provides, to the client 102 a, a user interface with which the user mayprovide data associated with the course. In another embodiment, thecreation engine 202 transmits, to the client 102 a, a client application210 a with which the user may provide data associated with the course.In still another embodiment, the client application 210 a is acommercially available web browser with which the user establishes aconnection to the creation engine 202.

In some embodiments, the creation engine 202 provides the client 102 awith automated tools for creating a hands-on training environment. Inone of these embodiments, the creation engine 202 provides functionalityfor receiving requests from a content creator (e.g., the user of theclient 102 a) regarding hardware and software resources and data toprovide as part of a course, and the creation engine 202 identifies andprovisions requested resources without requiring the content creator tophysically acquire, travel to, and configure the requested resources.

In one embodiment, the course is an on-line course. In anotherembodiment, the course provides at least one training exercise. In stillanother embodiment, the course includes at least one hands-on laboratoryexercise (which may also be referred to as training labs, lab exercises,and hands-on labs). By way of example, and without limitation, thecourse may include an exercise in which a student taking the courseinteracts with virtualized hardware or virtualized software to practicea skill taught in the course; for example, the course may be a hands-ontraining lab in which the student taking the course learns how toconfigure a particular type of hardware and the exercise allows thestudent to practice configuring the particular type of hardware byinteracting with a virtualized version of the hardware. In such anexample, the student is able to take the course on-line, on-demand,without needing to travel to a site that has the hardware available forpracticing on, and is able to interact with an actual version of thehardware instead of being limited to watching a video about how toconfigure the hardware, reading about how to configure the hardware, orattempting to understand how to configure the hardware in the abstract.

In one example, the course offers training on a piece of software thatis typically offered as software-as-a-service (e.g., web-basedsoftware). In this example, the course uses a computing resource 220 ato access a computing device maintained by a third-partysoftware-as-a-service provider; provisioning the computing resource 220a may include establishing a user account with the third-party providerso that when a student takes the course the user account is alreadyavailable. In some embodiments, the instantiation engine 204 providesfunctionality for managing such user accounts, allocating accounts,pre-populating accounts with data for use in the course, un-allocatingaccounts, and preparing the accounts for re-use by other users of thecourse.

As another example, the course may include an exercise in which astudent taking the course interacts with virtualized software topractice a skill taught in the course; for example, the course may be ahands-on training lab in which the student taking the course learns howto use a particular software application. In such an example, thestudent is able to use the software application without either thestudent or an instructor having to set up a physical machine on which toinstall the software, without having to go through the installationprocess, and without having to maintain the hardware and software neededto perform the exercise for multiple students over time.

The creation engine receives, from the second computing device, anidentification of a type of computing resource for use during the course(304). In one embodiment, the creation engine 202 receives from theclient 102 a an identification of a type of hardware for use during thecourse. By way of example, if the user is creating a course onconfiguring a type of network device (e.g., a router, a switch, or ahardware firewall), the user specifies the type of network device. Inanother embodiment, the creation engine 202 receives, from the client102 a, an identification of a type of software for use during thecourse. For example, if the user is creating a course on configuring atype of operating system or managing a database, the creation engine 202receives, from the client 102 a, an identification of the type ofoperating system or database.

In one embodiment, the creation engine 202 receives a plurality ofidentifications of types of computing resources. For example, the usercreating the course may specify that a variety of types of hardware andsoftware will be used in completing the course. In another embodiment,the creation engine 202 receives an identification of a type ofcomputing resource with which to execute the course; for example, andwithout limitation, in addition to indicating that students of thecourse will access particular types of networking devices on which topractice skills learned while taking the course, the course itself maybe offered for execution by, for example, a WINDOWS operating system oran APPLE MACINTOSH operating system.

In one embodiment, upon receiving the identification of the type ofcomputing resource, the creation engine 202 identifies one or moreservice providers that provide access to that type of computing resourceand arranges to have the one or more service providers provide access tothe type of computing resource. In another embodiment, the creationengine 202 configures a computing resource of the identified type onbehalf of the user of the client 102 a. In still another embodiment, thecreation engine 202 provides the client 102 a with access to aprovisioned computing resource of the identified type; for example, thecreation engine 202 may provide the client 102 a with access to theprovisioned computing resource so that the user of the client 102 a mayfurther configure the resource for use during the course. In yet anotherembodiment, by selecting and provisioning a computing resource of theidentified type, the creation engine 202 reduces the burden on a creatorof a course since the creator need not physically acquire the resource,configure it for use during the class and make it available duringplayback.

The creation engine selects a service provider computing device from aplurality of service provider computing devices based upon an ability ofthe selected service provider computing device to provide, to the secondcomputing device, access to the identified type of computing resource(306). In one embodiment, the creation engine 202 selects one of theplurality of service provider computing devices 212 a-n from which toprovision a computing resource 220 a-n having the identified type. Insome embodiments, the creation engine 202 identifies a plurality ofservice provider computing devices 212 that have the ability to provideaccess to the identified type of computing resource. In one of theseembodiments, the creation engine 202 selects one of the identifiedplurality of service provider computing devices 212 that provides accessto the identified type of computing resource at a lower price than asecond of the plurality of service provider computing devices 212.

The creation engine instructs the service provider computing device toprovision a computing resource of the identified type (308). In oneembodiment, the creation engine 202 instructs the service providercomputing device 212 a to provision the computing resource 220 a so thatthe creator of the course (i.e., the user of the client 102 a) mayfurther configure the computing resource 220 a as part of creating thecourse. In one embodiment, the creation engine 202 executes anapplication programming interface (API) command to provision thecomputing resource 220 a-n. In other embodiments, the instantiationengine 204 receives a request from the creation engine 202 to provisionthe computing resource 220 a. In one of these embodiments, theinstantiation engine 204 instructs the service provider computing device212 a to provision the computing resource 220 a so that the creator ofthe course (i.e., the user of the client 102 a) may further configurethe computing resource 220 a as part of creating the course.

In some embodiments, the creation engine 202 arranges to have acomputing resource 220 a of the identified type available forprovisioning during a certain period of time. In one of theseembodiments, the creation engine 202 arranges to buy, rent or lease thecomputing resource 220 a for a period of time so that the computingresource 220 a is available when a student (e.g., a user of the client102 b) wants to take the course. In other embodiments, the creationengine 202 arranges to have the service provider 212 commit tomaintaining a plurality of computing resources 220 a-n available for useby any client 102 b. In further embodiments, the creation engine 202arranges to provision a computing resource 220 a only during the periodof time during which a user of the client 102 a or client 102 b requestsaccess to the computing resource 220 a. In some embodiments, theinstantiation engine 204 provides the functionality for arranging tohave the computing resource 220 a of the identified type available forprovisioning during a certain period of time.

The creation engine directs the second computing device to connect tothe provisioned computing resource (310). In one embodiment, the client102 a connects directly to the provisioned computing resource 220 a. Inanother embodiment, the client 102 a connects first to the serviceprovider computing device 212 a and then connects to the computingresource 220 a. In still another embodiment, the creation engine 202connects to the computing resource 220 a and forwards data received fromthe client 102 a to the computing resource 220 a.

In one embodiment, the user of the client 102 a configures theprovisioned computing resource for use in the course; for example, theuser of the client 102 a may install software on the provisionedcomputing resource. As another example, where the provisioned computingresource will be used to complete an exercise as part of the course, theuser of the client 102 a may actually disable it, turn offfunctionality, or otherwise take an action to leave the provisionedcomputing resource 220 a less functional than it would otherwise havebeen—for example, if the exercise is to debug code written in aprogramming language the student is learning, the course creator mayintroduce an error into sample code stored by the provisioned computingresource 220 a; if the exercise is to learn how to fix a common problemwhen setting up a type of hardware device, the course creator mayintroduce the problem into the provisioned computing resource 220 a. Asdiscussed above, in some embodiments, the provisioned computing resource220 a is the machine on which a student will execute the course itself(e.g., a remotely hosted server or virtual machine) and in otherembodiments, the provisioned computing resource 220 a is an additionalresource with which a student will complete an exercise as part of thecourse (e.g., hardware to configure, software to install, or a platformfrom which the student may write computer applications). Therefore, insome embodiments, the user configuring the provisioned computingresource 220 may be installing software, adding data (such as coursematerials) or otherwise customizing the software from which the coursewill execute, while in other embodiments, the user configuring theprovisioned computing resource 220 may be customizing hardware orsoftware resources that are complementary to the course. In otherembodiments, however, the course uses a default configuration availableupon provisioning of the computing resource 220 a and no furtherconfiguration is required.

The creation engine receives, from the second computing device, anindication that the user configured the provisioned computing resourcefor use during the course (312). In one embodiment, the creation engine202 receives the indication from the client application 210 a. Inanother embodiment, the creation engine 202 receives the indication fromthe computing resource 220 a. In still another embodiment, the creationengine 202 receives the indication from the service provider computingdevice 212 a. In some embodiments, the instantiation engine 204receives, from the second computing device, an indication that the userconfigured the provisioned computing resource for use during the course.In other embodiments, the instantiation engine 204 receives, from thecreation engine 202, an indication that the user configured theprovisioned computing resource for use during the course.

The creation engine directs a state management engine to save a state ofthe provisioned computing resource, responsive to the receivedindication (314). In some embodiments, the creation engine 202 directsthe state management engine 205 to store a snapshot image of theprovisioned computing resource 220 a. In other embodiments, the creationengine 202 directly accesses the computing resource 220 a and generatesa snapshot image of the computing resource 220 a. In one embodiment, thecreation engine 202 directs the state management engine 205 to store thestate in a database accessible to the creation engine 202. In anotherembodiment, the creation engine 202 instructs the state managementengine 205 to provide the state to the creation engine 202 for storagelocal to the machine 106. In other embodiments, the state managementengine 205 receives the instruction to store the snapshot image of theprovisioned computing resource 220 a from the instantiation engine 204.In further embodiments, the state management engine 205 automaticallysaves the state of the computing resource 220 a without requiringdirection from the creation engine 202 or the instantiation engine 204.

In some embodiments, the service provider computing device 212 storesthe saved state. In one of these embodiments, the creation engine 202directs the service provider computing device 212 to store the savedstate. In other embodiments, a provisioned computing resource 220 storesthe saved state. In one of these embodiments, the creation engine 202directs the provisioned computing resource 220 to store the saved state.

In one embodiment, the creation engine 202 receives course data from theclient 102 a, which may include, by way of example and withoutlimitation, course materials, reference materials, exercises, hands-ontraining guides, and presentation materials. In another embodiment, thecreation engine 202 receives from the client 102 a one or moreidentifications of types of computing resources and stores the one ormore identifications with the course data. For example, the creationengine 202 may generate a document enumerating one or moreidentifications and associate the document with the course data.

Referring now to FIG. 3B, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of amethod 320 for providing access to a dynamically provisioned resourceand an on-demand course. In brief overview, the method 320 includesreceiving, by a creation engine executing on a first computing device,from a second computing device associated with a user, a request tocreate a course (322). The method 320 includes receiving, by thecreation engine, from the second computing device, an identification ofa type of computing resource for use during the course (324). The method320 includes selecting, by the creation engine, a service providercomputing device from a plurality of service provider computing devices,based upon an ability of the selected service provider computing deviceto provide, to the second computing device, access to the identifiedtype of computing resource (326). The method 320 includes instructing,by the creation engine, the service provider computing device toprovision a computing resource of the identified type (328). The method320 includes directing, by the creation engine, the second computingdevice to connect to the provisioned computing resource (330). Themethod 320 includes receiving, by the creation engine, from the secondcomputing device, an indication that the user configured the provisionedcomputing resource for use during the course (332). The method 320includes directing, by the creation engine, a state management engine tosave a state of the provisioned computing resource and metadataassociated with the course, responsive to the received indication (334).The method 320 includes providing access to the saved state of theprovisioned computing resource and the metadata associated with thecourse (336).

The method 320 includes receiving, by a creation engine executing on afirst computing device, from a second computing device associated with auser, a request to create a course (322). In one embodiment, thecreation engine receives the request as described above in connectionwith FIG. 3A.

The method 320 includes receiving, by the creation engine, from thesecond computing device, an identification of a type of computingresource for use during the course (324). In one embodiment, thecreation engine receives the identification as described above inconnection with FIG. 3A.

The method 320 includes selecting, by the creation engine, a serviceprovider computing device from a plurality of service provider computingdevices, based upon an ability of the selected service providercomputing device to provide, to the second computing device, access tothe identified type of computing resource (326). In one embodiment, thecreation engine selects the services provider computing device asdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3A.

The method 320 includes instructing, by the creation engine, the serviceprovider computing device to provision a computing resource of theidentified type (328). In one embodiment, the creation engine instructsthe service provider computing device as described above in connectionwith FIG. 3A.

The method 320 includes directing, by the creation engine, the secondcomputing device to connect to the provisioned computing resource (330).In one embodiment, the creation engine directs the second computingdevice as described above in connection with FIG. 3A.

The method 320 includes receiving, by the creation engine, from thesecond computing device, an indication that the user configured theprovisioned computing resource for use during the course (332). In oneembodiment, the creation engine receives the indication as describedabove in connection with FIG. 3A.

The method 320 includes directing, by the creation engine, a statemanagement engine to save a state of the provisioned computing resourceand metadata associated with the course, responsive to the receivedindication (334). In one embodiment, the creation engine directs thestate management engine as described above in connection with FIG. 3A.In still another embodiment, the creation engine 202 storesidentifications of types of computing resources required for completionof the course as metadata associated with course data. In yet anotherembodiment, the creation engine 202 stores, as metadata associated withthe course data, an identification of the plurality of service providercomputing devices 212 that can provide access to identified types ofcomputing resources. In some embodiments, the creation engine 202publishes an identification of the course. In one of these embodiments,the creation engine 202 makes the identification of the course availableto individuals who may wish to take the course.

In some embodiments, the state management engine 205 receives the courseinformation from the creation engine 202 and stores the information ascourse metadata. In one of these embodiments, the state managementengine 205 stores the course metadata with the saved state provided asdescribed above in connection with (314). In another of theseembodiments, the combined state and metadata is bundled together andmade available to users of the system.

The method 320 includes providing access to the saved state of theprovisioned computing resource and the metadata associated with thecourse (336). In other embodiments, the instantiation engine 204receives course information from the creation engine 202 and stores theinformation as course metadata. In one of these embodiments, theinstantiation engine 204 stores the course metadata with the saved stateprovided as described above in connection with (314). In another ofthese embodiments, the combined state and metadata is bundled togetherand made available to users of the system.

In one embodiment, bundling the combined state data and metadataprovides functionality for making courses available from a variety oflocations. In another embodiment, the bundled state and metadata may beembedded into other courses. In still another embodiment, the bundledstate and metadata may be embedded into other web sites. In someembodiments, the machine 106 stores the bundled state and metadata. Inother embodiments, the service provider computing device 212 stores thebundled state and metadata. Furthermore, the system may associate auniform resource locator (URL) with the bundled state and metadata toprovide access to the course and its metadata. As an example, byproviding a URL to a user, the system allows users to embed access tocourses within electronic mail, documents, web sites, or otherresources, allowing other users to directly access a course. In someembodiments, providing access includes offering for sale a copy of thesaved state and the metadata. In other embodiments, providing accessincludes providing a subscription for accessing the saved state and themetadata.

Referring now to FIG. 4A, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of amethod for dynamically provisioning resources for on-demand courses. Inbrief overview, the method includes receiving, by an instantiationengine executing on a first computing device, from a second computingdevice associated with a user, a request to access a course (402). Themethod includes identifying, by the instantiation engine, a type ofcomputing resource used during the course (404). The method includesselecting, by the instantiation engine, a service provider computingdevice from a plurality of service provider computing devices, basedupon an ability of the selected service provider computing device toprovide, to the second computing device, access to the identified typeof computing resource (406). The method includes instructing, by theinstantiation engine, the selected service provider computing device toprovision a computing resource of the identified type (408). The methodincludes transmitting, by the instantiation engine, to the secondcomputing device, an instruction to establish a connection to theprovisioned computing resource (410).

Referring now to FIG. 4A in greater detail, and in connection with FIGS.2-3B, an instantiation engine executing on a first computing devicereceives, from a second computing device associated with a user, arequest to access a course (402). In one embodiment, the client 102requests an enumeration of available courses. In another embodiment, theclient 102 b sends the request to access the course.

The method includes identifying, by the instantiation engine, a type ofcomputing resource for use during the course (404). In one embodiment,the instantiation engine 204 retrieves data associated with the course;for example, the instantiation engine 204 may retrieve metadataassociated with the course and identify resources required for useduring the course. In another embodiment, the instantiation engine 204transmits a request to the computing resource identification component208 to retrieve an enumeration of identifications of types of computingresources for use during the course. In still another embodiment, theinstantiation engine 204 queries a database to identify the type ofcomputing resource used during the course. In yet another embodiment,the instantiation engine 204 retrieves state and metadata associatedwith the course.

The method includes selecting, by the instantiation engine, a serviceprovider computing device from a plurality of service provider computingdevices, based upon an ability of the selected service providercomputing device to provide, to the second computing device, access tothe identified type of computing resource (406). In one embodiment, theinstantiation engine 204 directs the service provider selectioncomponent 206 to make the selection. In another embodiment, theinstantiation engine 204 makes the selection of the service providercomputing device 212 a-n based upon pricing (e.g., the instantiationengine 204 selects a first service provider computing device 212 b thatprovides access to the identified type of computing resource 220 a-n fora lower price than a second service provider computing device 212 c).

In some embodiments, the user of the client 102 b will access aplurality of types of computing resources during the course. Forexample, and without limitation, the user of the client 102 b may accessa virtual machine running a particular operating system and storingcourse presentation data and also access a virtual hardware device onwhich to practice configuring the type of hardware device, or alsoaccess a second virtual machine running a second operating system onwhich the user may practice writing, compiling, and executing code in aparticular programming language that is the subject of the course. Inone of these embodiments, the instantiation engine 204 selects a firstservice provider computing device 212 a to provide access to a computingresource 220 a with a first type and the instantiation engine 204selects a second service provider computing device 212 b to provideaccess to a computing resource 220 b with a second type. In another ofthese embodiments, the instantiation engine 204 selects one serviceprovider computing device 212 a to provide access to a computingresource 220 a with a first type from a first data center and theinstantiation engine 204 selects the same service provider computingdevice 212 a to provide access to a computing resource 220 b with asecond type from a second data center.

In some embodiments, the user of the client 102 b uses a plurality ofclients 102 to access the course. For example, and without limitation,the user may access a client 102 b to view a course presentation and mayaccess a client 102 c to complete an exercise. In one of theseembodiments, the system provides functionality for customizing coursedata to accommodate a plurality of clients 102; for example, theinstantiation engine 204 may direct the user to connect the client 102 bto a first computing resource 220 a to access a first type ofcourse-related data and to connect the client 102 c to a secondcomputing resource 220 b to access a second type of course-related data.

The method includes instructing, by the instantiation engine, theselected service provider computing device to provision a computingresource of the identified type (408). In one embodiment, theinstantiation engine 204 executes an API command to provision thecomputing resource 220 a-n. In another embodiment, the instantiationengine 204 provisions the computing resource 220 a having the identifiedtype when the user of the client 102 b requests access to the course. Insuch an embodiment, the system provides dynamic provisioning ofresources, instantiating the resources as required, as opposed torequiring the service provider computing device 212 a to keep aplurality of computing resources 220 a-n provisioned and constantlyexecuting in order to be prepared for a request by the client 102 b; notbeing locked in to a particular service providers resources may provideadditional flexibility as the instantiation engine 204 can selectdifferent service providers at different times, taking advantage ofdifferent resources and different prices available from differentservice provides.

The method includes transmitting, by the instantiation engine, to thesecond computing device, an instruction to establish a connection to theprovisioned computing resource (410). In one embodiment, theinstantiation engine 204 instructs the provisioned computing resource tobegin execution of course data (e.g., an application, presentation, orother course-related data). In another embodiment, the instantiationengine 204 transmits, to the second computing device, a uniform resourcelink with which the second computing device may access a provisionedcomputing resource 220.

In some embodiments, the user of the client 102 a remotely accesses theprovisioned computing resource 220 a during the course. In one of theseembodiments, the user of the client 102 a modifies the provisionedcomputing resource 220 a—for example, by completing an exercise in thecourse, modifying data stored by the provisioned computing resource 220a, or re-configuring the provisioned computing resource 220 a. Inanother of these embodiments, the instantiation engine 204 determinesthat the user has modified the provisioned computing resource 220 a. Byway of example, the client 102 a may inform the instantiation engine 204that the user has issued a command modifying the provisioned computingresource 220 a, or the provisioned computing resource 220 a itself maytransmit an indication of a modification to the instantiation engine204. In still another of these embodiments, the instantiation engine 204directs the service provider computing device 212 to store a state ofthe provisioned computing resource 220 a. In yet another of theseembodiments, the instantiation engine 204 directs the service providercomputing device 212 to store a snapshot image of the provisionedcomputing resource 220 a.

In one embodiment, the instantiation engine 204 makes a modified versionof the course available for playback. In another embodiment, a user ofthe client 102 b begins to execute the course, modifies the provisionedcomputing resource 220 a, and disconnects from the provisioned computingresource 220 a before completing the course. In some embodiments, bysaving the state of the course, the instantiation engine 204 allows theuser to effectively pause his execution of the course and later resumethe execution of the course where he left off. In one of theseembodiments, the instantiation engine 204 receives a request from acomputing device associated with the user taking the course (either theclient 102 b or another client 102 c). In another of these embodiments,the instantiation engine 204 identifies the type of computing resourceused during the course. In still another of these embodiments, theinstantiation engine 204 selects a second service provider computingdevice 212 b from the plurality of service provider computing devices212 a-n and instructs the second service provider computing device 212 bto provision a second computing resource 220 b of the identified type.In another of these embodiments, the instantiation engine 204 instructsthe second service provider computing device to retrieve the storedstate of the course and resume execution of the course. In yet anotherof these embodiments, the instantiation engine 204 transmits, to thecomputing device that requested access to the course, an instruction toestablish a connection to the provisioned second computing resources 220b.

In some embodiments, as mentioned above, the instantiation engine 204stores metadata relating to a course. In one embodiment, theinstantiation engine 204 stores metadata relating to a student'sparticipation in a course such as, for example and without limitation,whether a student took a particular course, if so, which exercises orportions of the course the student completed, how long the student tookto complete the course, and how much time the student spent on takingdifferent courses. In another embodiment, the instantiation engine 204provides the student-related metadata to a reporting engine (not shown),which may provide the information to the student (e.g., for tracking howmuch time they spend on training and for recommending similar courses),to a teacher of a course (for example, to provide insight intoparticular portions of a course where a student spent more time andmight be inferred to be struggling or particularly interested), to athird party (such as an employer seeking to track how much timeemployees spend taking courses or to a vendor seeking to track how manycustomers spend time on courses for the vendor's products). Similarly,the instantiation engine 204 may track metadata relating to a teacher'sinvolvement in a course and the creation engine 204 may track how longit takes someone to create a new course. The system may store suchuser-related metadata in a database either on the machine 106, local tothe machine 106, or provided by a service provider computing device 212.A reporting engine may access the stored metadata to generate granularreports to provide to course creators, course takers, or third parties.

Referring now to FIG. 4B, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of amethod 420 for dynamically provisioning resources for an on-demandcourse to multiple users. In brief overview, the method 420 includesreceiving, by an instantiation engine executing on a first computingdevice, from a second computing device associated with a user, a requestto access a course (422). In one embodiment, the instantiation enginereceives the request as described above in connection with FIG. 4A. Themethod 420 includes identifying, by the instantiation engine, a type ofcomputing resource used during the course (424). In one embodiment, theinstantiation engine identifies the type of computing resource asdescribed above in connection with FIG. 4A. The method 420 includesselecting, by the instantiation engine, a service provider computingdevice from a plurality of service provider computing devices, basedupon an ability of the selected service provider computing device toprovide, to the second computing device, access to the identified typeof computing resource (426). In one embodiment, the instantiation engineselects the service provider computing device as described above inconnection with FIG. 4A. The method 420 includes instructing, by theinstantiation engine, the selected service provider computing device toprovision a computing resource of the identified type (428). In oneembodiment, the instantiation engine instructs the selected serviceprovider computing device as described above in connection with FIG. 4A.The method 420 includes transmitting, by the instantiation engine, tothe second computing device, an instruction to establish a connection tothe provisioned computing resource (430). In one embodiment, theinstantiation engine transmits the instruction as described above inconnection with FIG. 4A. The method 420 includes receiving, by theinstantiation engine, from a third computing device associated with asecond user, a second request to access the course (432). In oneembodiment, the instantiation engine receives the request as describedabove in connection with FIG. 4A. The method 420 includes selecting, bythe instantiation engine, a second service provider computing devicefrom the plurality of service provider computing devices, based upon anability of the second service provider computing device to provide, tothe third computing device, access to the identified type of computingresource for use during the course (434). In one embodiment, theinstantiation engine selects the second service provider computingdevice as described above in connection with FIG. 4A. The method 420includes instructing, by the instantiation engine, the second serviceprovider computing device to provision a second computing resource ofthe identified type (436). In one embodiment, the instantiation engineinstructs the second service provider computing device as describedabove in connection with FIG. 4A. The method includes transmitting, bythe instantiation engine, to the third computing device, an instructionto establish a connection to the provisioned second computing resource(438). In one embodiment, the instantiation engine transmits theinstruction as described above in connection with FIG. 4A.

Referring now to FIG. 4C, a flow diagram depicts one embodiment of amethod 450 for dynamically provisioning resources for an on-demandcourse at a scheduled time. In brief overview, the method 450 includesreceiving, by an instantiation engine executing on a first computingdevice, from a second computing device associated with a user, anindication that the user has purchased access to the course at ascheduled time (452). In one embodiment, the instantiation enginereceives the indication as described above in connection with FIG. 4A.The method 450 includes identifying, by the instantiation engine, a typeof computing resource for use during the course at the scheduled time(454). In one embodiment, the instantiation engine identifies the typeof computing resource as described above in connection with FIG. 4A. Themethod 450 includes selecting, by the instantiation engine, a serviceprovider computing device from a plurality of service provider computingdevices, based upon an ability of the selected service providercomputing device to provide, to the second computing device, access tothe identified type of computing resource at the scheduled time (456).In one embodiment, the instantiation engine selects the service providercomputing device as described above in connection with FIG. 4A. Themethod 450 includes, before the scheduled time, instructing, by theinstantiation engine, the selected service provider computing device toprovision a computing resource of the identified type (458). In oneembodiment, the instantiation engine instructs the selected serviceprovider computing device as described above in connection with FIG. 4A.The method 450 includes transmitting, by the instantiation engine, tothe second computing device, an instruction to establish a connection tothe provisioned computing resource at the scheduled time (460). In oneembodiment, the instantiation engine transmits the instruction asdescribed above in connection with FIG. 4A.

In some embodiments, the methods and systems described herein providefunctionality allowing individuals to rapidly and inexpensively createand share scalable, always-on, cloud-based solutions, with cloudeconomics. In other embodiments, the methods and systems describedherein provide a platform for collaboration by establishing ongoingrelationships between creators and users of such cloud-based solutions.In further embodiments, the methods and systems described herein providefunctionality for utilizing data center infrastructure and resources toenable the rapid creation, deployment and management of hands-ontraining labs anywhere anytime; the labs may be destroyed after use,shared, or saved as part of a user resource library.

It should be understood that on-line courses, virtual labs, and hands-ontraining environments are one example of the types of applications forwhich the system provides creation and playback functionality. Forexample, another type of application may include a virtualized qualitycontrol test bed and yet another example includes virtualized customersupport environments.

It should be understood that the systems described above may providemultiple ones of any or each of those components and these componentsmay be provided on either a standalone machine or, in some embodiments,on multiple machines in a distributed system. The phrases ‘in oneembodiment,’ in ‘another embodiment,’ and the like, generally mean thatthe particular feature, structure, step, or characteristic following thephrase is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosureand may be included in more than one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. However, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the sameembodiment.

The systems and methods described above may be implemented as a method,apparatus, or article of manufacture using programming and/orengineering techniques to produce software, firmware, hardware, or anycombination thereof. The techniques described above may be implementedin one or more computer programs executing on a programmable computerincluding a processor, a storage medium readable by the processor(including, for example, volatile and non-volatile memory and/or storageelements), at least one input device, and at least one output device.Program code may be applied to input entered using the input device toperform the functions described and to generate output. The output maybe provided to one or more output devices.

Each computer program within the scope of the claims below may beimplemented in any programming language, such as assembly language,machine language, a high-level procedural programming language, or anobject-oriented programming language. The programming language may, forexample, be LISP, PROLOG, PERL, C, C++, C#, JAVA, or any compiled orinterpreted programming language.

Each such computer program may be implemented in a computer programproduct tangibly embodied in a machine-readable storage device forexecution by a computer processor. Method steps of the invention may beperformed by a computer processor executing a program tangibly embodiedon a computer-readable medium to perform functions of the invention byoperating on input and generating output. Suitable processors include,by way of example, both general and special purpose microprocessors.Generally, the processor receives instructions and data from a read-onlymemory and/or a random access memory. Storage devices suitable fortangibly embodying computer program instructions include, for example,all forms of computer-readable devices, firmware, programmable logic,hardware (e.g., integrated circuit chip; electronic devices; acomputer-readable non-volatile storage unit; non-volatile memory, suchas semiconductor memory devices, including EPROM, EEPROM, and flashmemory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removabledisks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROMs). Any of the foregoing may besupplemented by, or incorporated in, specially-designed ASICs(application-specific integrated circuits) or FPGAs (Field-ProgrammableGate Arrays). A computer can generally also receive programs and datafrom a storage medium such as an internal disk (not shown) or aremovable disk. These elements will also be found in a conventionaldesktop or workstation computer as well as other computers suitable forexecuting computer programs implementing the methods described herein,which may be used in conjunction with any digital print engine ormarking engine, display monitor, or other raster output device capableof producing color or gray scale pixels on paper, film, display screen,or other output medium. A computer may also receive programs and datafrom a second computer providing access to the programs via a networktransmission line, wireless transmission media, signals propagatingthrough space, radio waves, infrared signals, etc.

Having described certain embodiments of methods and systems fordynamically provisioning resources for on-demand courses, it will nowbecome apparent to one of skill in the art that other embodimentsincorporating the concepts of the disclosure may be used. Therefore, thedisclosure should not be limited to certain embodiments, but rathershould be limited only by the spirit and scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for creating and providing access to adynamically provisioned course, the method comprising: receiving, by acreation engine executing on a first computing device, from a secondcomputing device associated with a user, a request to create a course;receiving, by the creation engine, from the second computing device, anidentification of a type of computing resource for use during thecourse; selecting, by the creation engine, a service provider computingdevice from a plurality of service provider computing devices based uponan ability of the selected service provider computing device to provide,to the second computing device, access to the identified type ofcomputing resource; instructing, by the creation engine, the serviceprovider computing device to provision a computing resource of theidentified type; directing, by the creation engine, the second computingdevice to connect to the provisioned computing resource; receiving, bythe creation engine, from the second computing device, an indicationthat the user configured the provisioned computing resource for useduring the course; directing, by the creation engine, a state managementengine to save a state of the provisioned computing resource andmetadata associated with the course, responsive to the receivedindication; and providing access to the saved state of the provisionedcomputing resource and the metadata associated with the course.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein providing access further comprises providinga subscription for accessing the saved state and the metadata.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein providing access further comprises offeringfor sale a copy of the saved state and the metadata.
 4. A method fordynamically provisioning resources for an on-demand course to multipleusers, the method comprising: receiving, by an instantiation engineexecuting on a first computing device, from a second computing deviceassociated with a user, a request to access a course; identifying, bythe instantiation engine, a type of computing resource used during thecourse; selecting, by the instantiation engine, a service providercomputing device from a plurality of service provider computing devices,based upon an ability of the selected service provider computing deviceto provide, to the second computing device, access to the identifiedtype of computing resource; instructing, by the instantiation engine,the selected service provider computing device to provision a computingresource of the identified type; transmitting, by the instantiationengine, to the second computing device, an instruction to establish aconnection to the provisioned computing resource; receiving, by theinstantiation engine, from a third computing device associated with asecond user, a second request to access the course; selecting, by theinstantiation engine, a second service provider computing device fromthe plurality of service provider computing devices, based upon anability of the second service provider computing device to provide, tothe third computing device, access to the identified type of computingresource used during the course; instructing, by the instantiationengine, the second service provider computing device to provision asecond computing resource of the identified type; and transmitting, bythe instantiation engine, to the third computing device, an instructionto establish a connection to the provisioned second computing resource.5. A method for dynamically provisioning resources for an on-demandcourse at a scheduled time, the method comprising: receiving, by aninstantiation engine executing on a first computing device, from asecond computing device associated with a user, an indication that theuser has purchased access to the course at a scheduled time;identifying, by the instantiation engine, a type of computing resourcefor use during the course at the scheduled time; selecting, by theinstantiation engine, a service provider computing device from aplurality of service provider computing devices, based upon an abilityof the selected service provider computing device to provide, to thesecond computing device, access to the identified type of computingresource at the scheduled time; before the scheduled time, instructing,by the instantiation engine, the selected service provider computingdevice to provision a computing resource of the identified type; andtransmitting, by the instantiation engine, to the second computingdevice, an instruction to establish a connection to the provisionedcomputing resource at the scheduled time.